Americans in Saint Petersburg: Nakamura Tied for 2nd, Tang Climbs

The 2018 King Salman FIDE World Rapid Blitz Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia (Dec 26-28) started out in dramatic fashion as World Champion Magnus Carlsen lost his first two games. Despite this disastrous opening, Magnus almost won the event with 10.5/15, with a draw against our own Hikaru Nakamura in the final round. The World Champion and the Grand Chess Tour Champion found themselves just outside victory, as Magnus’s World Championship training camp, Grandmaster Daniil Dubov of Russia to capture the rapid crown with 11/15.

Magnus’s own comeback trail to contention began with a victory over Andrew Tang, an American bullet legend who goes by PenguinGM1 on twitch and twitter. Tang put up a valiant effort, but fell to the king.

Despite this loss, Tang dazzled in the event, defeating many strong Grandmasters in ultra-complicated games. Tang has a much lower rapid rating than he should and gained well over one hundred rating points at the event.

The event’s most memorable moment was an incredible victory by Dmitry Andreikin, who found a stunning combination against Peter Svidler. Here’s the video replay, where the eight-time Russian champion and beloved commentator showed his passion for the game in marveling instead of bemoaning his own fate, after the final touch of …Rg6!

A somewhat familiar pattern in this Svidler v Andreikin beauty but it's a beauty nonetheless. Sergei Shipov, the official commentator for the Russian-language live broadcast, called it "Simply Mozart." The players' reactions are just as entertaining. https://t.co/Y9Mb4ZS7CPpic.twitter.com/OeaGKgZgdm

The discussion of this gem continued to dominate Chess twitter, with the victim himself chiming in.

Judging by the amount of love my moment of admiration for Dmitry's combination is getting, I should be getting mated, spectacularly, in the center of the board more often.Seriously though – that final position is fabulous, have a look if you haven't yet

Nakamura faced World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the final round, but a draw ended his chances for the crown as Dubov finished a half a point ahead of a formidable quartet on 10.5/15.

Reigning Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun of China captured the Rapid Women’s World Championship with a convincing 10/12 and will hunt for the triple crown as the Blitz World Championships begin tomorrow.

Comments

Nakumara/ world Grand Prix champion /defeated Caruana and Aronian in finals before this $1,150,000 guaranteed 5 day long rapid /blitz series…NAKAMURA NOW RATED WORLD NUMBER #2 URS PRO COMBINED RATING RANKING…205 PLAYERS IN THIS FIRST RAPID EVENT. Jude Acers/ New Orleans